Intel SR-IOV Explanation

Simple explanation of how Intel's Ethernet Controllers provide SR-IOV support in an Virtualized Environment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRHsk8Nycdg

 

impitools

POWER CONTROL

Power on server:

ipmitool -I lan -H 192.168.4.5 -U root -P calvin chassis power on

Power off server:

ipmitool -I lan -H 192.168.4.5 -U root -P calvin chassis power off


Server status:
ipmitool -I lan -H 192.168.4.5 -U root -P calvin chassis status


All chassis power Commands: 
status, on, off, cycle, reset, diag, soft 

SENSORS

List all sensors and their status:
ipmitool -I lan -H 192.168.4.5 -U root -P calvin sdr list

List temperature sensors and their status:
ipmitool -I lan -H 192.168.4.5 -U root -P calvin sdr type temperature

Get temperature from particular sensor id:
ipmitool -I lan -H 192.168.4.5 -U root -P calvin sdr get 'Ambient Temp'

All Sensor Types:    Temperature                 Voltage                 
    Current                     Fan                     
    Physical Security           Platform Security       
    Processor                   Power Supply            
    Power Unit                  Cooling Device          
    Other                       Memory                  
    Drive Slot / Bay            POST Memory Resize      
    System Firmwares            Event Logging Disabled  
    Watchdog                    System Event            
    Critical Interrupt          Button                  
    Module / Board              Microcontroller         
    Add-in Card                 Chassis                 
    Chip Set                    Other FRU               
    Cable / Interconnect        Terminator              
    System Boot Initiated       Boot Error              
    OS Boot                     OS Critical Stop        
    Slot / Connector            System ACPI Power State 
    Watchdog                    Platform Alert          
    Entity Presence             Monitor ASIC            
    LAN                         Management Subsystem Health
    Battery                     Session Audit           
    Version Change              FRU State

Other IPMI commands

Copy from http://www.openfusion.net/linux/ipmi_on_centos.html

# IPMI commands
ipmitool help
man ipmitool

# To check firmware version
ipmitool mc info
# To reset the management controller
ipmitool mc reset [ warm | cold ]

# Show field-replaceable-unit details
ipmitool fru print

# Show sensor output
ipmitool sdr list
ipmitool sdr type list
ipmitool sdr type Temperature
ipmitool sdr type Fan
ipmitool sdr type 'Power Supply'

# Chassis commands
ipmitool chassis status
ipmitool chassis identify [<interval>]   # turn on front panel identify light (default 15s)
ipmitool [chassis] power soft            # initiate a soft-shutdown via acpi
ipmitool [chassis] power cycle           # issue a hard power off, wait 1s, power on
ipmitool [chassis] power off             # issue a hard power off
ipmitool [chassis] power on              # issue a hard power on
ipmitool [chassis] power reset           # issue a hard reset

# Modify boot device for next reboot
ipmitool chassis bootdev pxe
ipmitool chassis bootdev cdrom
ipmitool chassis bootdev bios

# Logging
ipmitool sel info
ipmitool sel list
ipmitool sel elist                       # extended list (see manpage)
ipmitool sel clear

SOL - Serial over LAN (connect to console redirection)

ipmitool -I lanplus -U root -P calvin -H 192.168.2.62 sol activate

ipmitool -I lanplus -U root -P calvin -H 192.168.2.62 sol deactivate

Dell OpenStack-Powered Cloud Solution

http://content.dell.com/us/en/enterprise/by-need-it-productivity-data-center-change-response-openstack-cloud

How to Install Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 for VMware vCenter 5

http://lonesysadmin.net/2011/10/06/how-to-install-microsoft-sql-server-2008-r2-for-vmware-vcenter-5/

vSphere SDK for Perl - Script Repository

vGhetto Script Repository
http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-9852

NetWare Server Migration Physical to Virtual (P2V) using VMware

http://www.novell.com/communities/node/4146/netware-server-migration-physical-virtual-p2v-using-vmware

Master’s guide to VMware Fault Tolerance

http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/virtualization-pro/masters-guide-to-vmware-fault-tolerance/

Extending an EagerZeroedThick Disk

http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2012/06/extending-an-eagerzeroedthick-disk.html

~ # vmkfstools -X 6G -d eagerzeroedthick  /vmfs/volumes/cs-ee-symmlun-001A/cormac.vmdk                                              
Grow: 100% done. All data on '/vmfs/volumes/cs-ee-symmlun-001A/cormac.vmdk' will be overwritten with zeros from sector <8388608> onwards.
Zeroing: 100% done. 

VAAI

The following outputs shows that Hardware Acceleration is enabled on ESX to take advantage of the storage primitives on ESX 4.1 and ESXi 5.x. Use the esxcfg-advcfg command to check that the options are set to 1 (enabled):

# esxcfg-advcfg -g /DataMover/HardwareAcceleratedMove
# esxcfg-advcfg -g /DataMover/HardwareAcceleratedInit
# esxcfg-advcfg -g /VMFS3/HardwareAcceleratedLocking

To check if the storage array supports VAAI primitives, you can use the following command:

esxcli storage core device vaai status get -d naa.60a98000572d54724a346a6170627a52
VAAI Plugin Name: VMW_VAAIP_NETAPP
ATS Status: supported
Clone Status: supported
Zero Status: supported
Delete Status: supported
 

Custom ESXi 5 ISO for UCS, Nexus 1000v and PowerPath VE

http://jeremywaldrop.wordpress.com/2012/04/27/custom-esxi-5-iso-for-ucs-nexus-1000v-and-powerpath-ve/

Get the maximum IOPS (PowerCLI)

http://www.lucd.info/2011/04/22/get-the-maximum-iops/

$metrics = "disk.numberwrite.summation","disk.numberread.summation"
$start = (Get-Date).AddMinutes(-5)
$report = @()

$vms = Get-VM | where {$_.PowerState -eq "PoweredOn"}
$stats = Get-Stat -Realtime -Stat $metrics -Entity $vms -Start $start
$interval = $stats[0].IntervalSecs

$lunTab = @{}
foreach($ds in (Get-Datastore -VM $vms | where {$_.Type -eq "VMFS"})){
  $ds.ExtensionData.Info.Vmfs.Extent | %{
    $lunTab[$_.DiskName] = $ds.Name
  }
}

$report = $stats | Group-Object -Property {$_.Entity.Name},Instance | %{
  New-Object PSObject -Property @{
    VM = $_.Values[0]
    Disk = $_.Values[1]
    IOPSMax = ($_.Group | `
      Group-Object -Property Timestamp | `
      %{$_.Group[0].Value + $_.Group[1].Value} | `
      Measure-Object -Maximum).Maximum / $interval
    Datastore = $lunTab[$_.Values[1]]
  }
}

$report

File Server Capacity Tool v1.2- (64 bit)

Tool for file server (cifs/smb/smb2) benchmark and capacity planning.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=27284

DELL OMSA LiveCD / LiveDVD

http://linux.dell.com/files/openmanage-contributions/om65-firmware-live/

Fundamentals of vSphere Performance Management

http://www.doublecloud.org/2010/03/fundamentals-of-vsphere-performance-management/

Performance monitoring is a critical aspect of vSphere administration. This article introduces you the basic concepts and terminologies in vSphere performance management, for example, performance counters, performance metrics, real time vs historical statistics, etc. Much of the content is based on my book VMware VI and vSphere SDK by Prentice Hall.
Once you understand these basics, the related tools and APIs should be relatively easy. If you are already familiar with vSphere Client performance monitoring or esxtop, they help as well.

Performance Statistics (PowerCLI) 
http://www.sandfordit.com/vwiki/Performance_Statistics_(PowerCLI)

Performance Statistics (Perl SDK) 
http://www.vmware.com/vmtn/technology/developer/webinars/vi-perl-toolkit_webcast_2006-10-11.pdf

WAN Optimization for the Masses

The free virtual appliance version limited to two end points and 4Mb of traffic.

http://www.vx-xpress.com/

vSphere 5.0 Hardening Guide - Public Draft

http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-19056

ControlByWeb Ethernet I/O

http://www.controlbyweb.com/

ControlByWeb Ethernet I/O products provide an easy and reliable way to monitor & control devices over a network.

vSphere 5 Host Network Design - 10GbE vDS Design

http://vrif.blogspot.com/2012/04/vsphere-5-host-network-design-10gbe-vds.html

ESX 5: Command Line VM Manipulation

http://blog.allanglesit.com/2012/04/esx-5-command-line-vm-manipulation/

Using esxcli to Mask a LUN from ESXi

http://www.virtuallanger.com/2012/05/01/using-esxcli-to-mask-a-lun-from-esxi/

VMware Health check - RVTools

If you don't have access to VMware Health Check Analyzer then other tool that can be used for VMware health-check engagement is RVTools.  It is free and has been around for about four years.  The author keeps it updated and once you connect to  vCenter or a Host you can export everything directly to an Excel spreadsheet.  The latest version is v3.3 as of April 12, 2012.

Google: RVTools
RVTools Homepage: http://www.robware.net/
Download Link: http://www.robware.net/download/RVTools.msi
 

vCenter Performance Counters

http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-5600

How to enable/disable Intel VT-d on XEN

See: http://wiki.xen.org/wiki/VTd_HowTo

Usually, you just need 'iommu=1' to enable VT-d. At the same time, most of VT-d features (DMA remapping, snoop control, queued invalidation and interrupt remapping) are enabled by default if they are available. You can use 'no-xxx' to disable a feature, for example, 'iommu=no-snoop' disable snoop control.

When RMRR address range is not in reserved memory (BIOS issue), can use 'iommu_inclusive_mapping=1' to work around it.

The grub configuration is like:

title Xen-Linux (2.6.18-xen)

        root (hd0,0)

        kernel /boot/xen.gz iommu=1

        module /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18.8-xen root=LABEL=/

        module /boot/initrd-2.6.18-xen.img

How to disable Intel VT-d on ESX

When using Interrupt Remapping on some servers, you may experience vHBAs and other PCI devices stop responding in ESXi 6.0.x, ESXi 5.x and ESXi/ESX 4.1

This issue should be solved by server vendors releasing fixed BIOS version but if there is not a fix available you can use following workaround until new BIOS is released.

Disabling Intel VT-d Interrupt Remapping:

ESX/ESXi 4.1:

esxcfg-advcfg -k TRUE iovDisableIR

(reboot)

ESXi 5.0:

esxcli system settings kernel set --setting=iovDisableIR -v TRUE

(reboot)

Disabling all VT-d features:
Advanced setting VMkernel.Boot.noIOMMU = unchecked = 0

For more info look at https://kb.vmware.com/kb/1030265 

VMware Perl SDK - SSL Certificate verification

PROBLEM:

[root@MON-PROXY vm]# ./vminfo.pl --url https://10.10.4.70/sdk/vimService --username dpasek -vmname mon_proxy
Enter password:
Server version unavailable at 'https://10.10.4.70:443/sdk/vimService.wsdl' at /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.8/VMware/VICommon.pm line 545, line 1.

SOLUTION:

[root@MON-PROXY vm]# export PERL_LWP_SSL_VERIFY_HOSTNAME=0
[root@MON-PROXY vm]# ./vminfo.pl --url https://10.10.4.70/sdk/vimService --username dpasek -vmname mon_proxy

VMware SRM

SRM Scripts
C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager\scripts\SAN

command.pl
discoverArray.pl
discoverLuns.pl
testfailover.pl
failover.pl


SRM Logs
%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\VMware\VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager\Logs\

Links:
http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2009/01/20/sra-discoverluns/
http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2012/01/10/hacking-site-recovery-manager-srm-a-storage-array-adapter/
http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2012/01/12/fiddling-around-with-srms-storage-replication-adapter-part-ii/

GVRP - GARP VLAN Registration protocol

Very nice introduction to GVRP:
http://startnetworks.blogspot.com/2011/05/gvrp-garp-vlan-registration-protocol.html

Dell OpenManage Offline Bundle and VIB for ESXi

OMSA 6.5
http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/us/en/555/DriverDetails/DriverFileFormats?c=us&l=en&s=&cs=555&DriverId=R300511

OMSA 7.0
http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/us/en/555/DriverDetails/DriverFileFormats?DriverId=VPTVV&FileId=2922404090&productCode=poweredge-r720&urlProductCode=False

It can be installed with VMware Update Manager (VUM) or with CLI.
VUM is preferred, simpler and more convenient option.

CLI installation:
vihostupdate.pl -server -i -b OM-SrvAdmin-Dell-Web-6.3.0-2075.VIBESX41i_A00.8.zip

vicfg-advcfg --server --username --password --set 1 UserVars.CIMoemProviderEnabled

For example:
vicfg-advcfg --server 10.10.1.72 --set 1 UserVars.CIMoemProviderEnabled

Note:
in ESX5 advanced parameter changed to UserVars.CIMvmw_OpenManageProviderEnabled

The Trouble with CA SSL Certificates and vCenter 5

http://longwhiteclouds.com/2012/02/07/the-trouble-with-ca-ssl-certificates-and-vcenter-5/

http://www.wooditwork.com/2011/11/30/vsphere-5-certificates-1-installing-a-root-certificate-authority-3/

How Vblock is built

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SCrO0kAVWA&feature=player_embedded

vSphere PowerCLI Administration Guide

http://www.vmware.com/support/developer/PowerCLI/PowerCLI41/doc/viwin_admg.pdf

DELL PCT 6224 (EQL configuration)

1. Enable the RSTP on the switch
2. Enable “spanning-tree portfast” on all ports connected to the SAN
3. Enable Jumbo Frame support on ports connected to the SAN
4. Disable the “storm control” feature on ports connected to the SAN
5. When you have dedicated SAN network enable Flow Control on the switch

Configuration:

Switch(config)# spanning-tree mode rstp
Switch(config)# interface range ethernet 1/g1-1/g12
Switch(config-if)# spanning-tree portfast
Switch(config-if)# mtu 9216
Switch(config-if)# no storm-control unicast
Switch(config-if)# exit
Switch(config)# flowcontrol (only you have dedicated SAN)
Switch# copy running-config startup-config

ESX, NUMA and "Node Interleaving"

Node interleaving disabled equals NUMA which is the best practice for ESX. That's usually default setting in BIOS of NUMA capable servers.

NUMA can be disabled by enabling Node Interleaving in the BIOS of the ESX host but that's not good practice for NUMA systems.

Full explanation at http://frankdenneman.nl/2010/12/node-interleaving-enable-or-disable/

How to create and send disk image over ssh

dd bs=4m if=/dev/ad0 | ssh accontrol@192.168.4.185 'cat > image.dd'

VMware Linked Clones

Blog post about linked clones:
https://vwade.wordpress.com/2010/02/28/linked-clones/

Linked clone script with Perl SDK:
http://engineering.ucsb.edu/~duonglt/vmware/vGhettoLinkedClone.html

Linked clone script with PowerCLI:
http://www.vmdev.info/?p=40

MD5/SHA1 calculation

http://www.mydigitallife.info/hash-calculator-to-get-compute-and-calculate-md5-and-sha1-file-checksum-or-hash-value/

SlavaSoft HashCalc - HASH, CRC, AND HMAC CALCULATOR
http://www.slavasoft.com/hashcalc/index.htm

Migrating to vCenter Server 5.0 using the Data Migration Tool

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2005328

“All aboard” the Nexus 1000v 1.5 train

http://www.vnephos.com/index.php/2012/02/all-aboard-the-nexus-1000v-1-5-train/

VMware diagrams

http://www.hypervizor.com/diagrams/

Cody Bunch blog

http://professionalvmware.com/

VCAP-DCD brown bags

VMware vCenter Orchestrator

How to install Apache with perl modules on CENTOS

1/ Install Apache
yum install httpd

2/ Configure Apache on startup
chkconfig httpd on

3/ Allow port 80 and 443 in IPTABLES firewall
edit conf file /etc/sysconfig/iptables and add folowing lines before last reject line

-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -m state --state NEW -m tcp -p tcp --dport 80 -j ACCEPT
-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -m state --state NEW -m tcp -p tcp --dport 443 -j ACCEPT

4/ Install PERL modules


rpm -Uvh http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/epel/5/x86_64/epel-release-5-4.noarch.rpm

yum list *NCFTP*

yum install ncftp

perl -MCPAN -e shell
cpan> install XML::Simple